Ambition makes anguish all the sharper. Tottenham Hotspur have been considered challengers for the Premier League title and the controversies here are all the more infuriating to a club that stay seven points adrift of the leaders, Manchester City. Tottenham do have their grievances about offside decisions in this defeat and the refusal of a penalty when a shot came off the arm of the Stoke City defender Ryan Shawcross. "The most blatant handball you'll ever see," said Harry Redknapp.

"I felt he was quite enjoying giving us nothing," the Tottenham manager said in his verdict on the referee, Chris Foy. "I don't talk about refereeing decisions, never have done in 30 years of management, but I will today. When someone is a yard and a half, two yards onside like [Emmanuel Adebayor] was [at a disallowed goal], how does the linesman not see it?" A spot-kick that did come Tottenham's way was not enough and, while their revival was stirring despite the loss of the centre-half Younes Kaboul to a red card, they did not reach the level expected of title contenders.

"The referee's not made mistakes because he meant to," Redknapp said. "He just had a bad day. So did the linesman. He'll look at it tonight when his wife's making him a bacon sandwich and think: 'What have I done there?'"

In the first half, as Redknapp accepted, Tottenham's display had been inadequate for a lineup with trophies in mind. So comprehensive was the inadequacy that the manager was moved to restructure the formation, using Kyle Walker and Gareth Bale as wing-backs in a 3-5-2 system. Redknapp is interested in using that system in future but all the visions of days to come should be set aside lest we forget how intrepid Stoke were in the first 45 minutes. It was then that Matthew Etherington scored twice, doubling his tally from three and a half years as a Tottenham player.

Tony Pulis's side were relentless before the interval and, well known as their style is, there was no answer to it from Tottenham. The Stoke manager, as part of his reward, was in a position to proffer consolation. "They could push all the way," he said. That may be true but Tottenham did not come up with a strategy to resist a threat that was easily anticipated.

They will be rightly enraged by controversial decisions but they will also rue going 2-0 down by half-time. Stoke had executed set pieces to score the goals, showing how honed these methods have becomes in Pulis's lineup. Spurs did rally vigorously and Adebayor converted a penalty in the 62nd minute awarded after slight contact with Luka Modric by Glen Whelan.

The visitors could not complete the comeback but they will just have to use their frustration as a means of fuelling their endeavours in the league. The misery did not abate for Tottenham, who had Kaboul sent off for a second yellow card after a foul on Jonathan Walters in the 82nd minute that Redknapp termed an "innocuous challenge". Kaboul's first booking came for a spectacles gesture at the referee when the defender felt he ought to have had a penalty.

The visitors might have wished for a fit Ledley King or Michael Dawson at the core of the back four but sides of their ambition are supposed to cope better than this. Redknapp's side endured only their second defeat away from home in the league. As with so many others before them, they succumbed to a style of football that they knew for certain they would encounter. Stoke deserve more respect than they get for methods that have been well honed. That hurt the visitors and there was an additional wince at the identity of the scorer in the first half. Etherington pained Tottenham and for the first goal another former player added his contribution.

Ryan Shotton's cross reached Peter Crouch and although he took the ball a little wide, his deflected shot ran to Etherington, who slotted in the opportunity after 13 minutes. Redknapp's side had territorial advantage, with Modric particularly busy in search of a response. But Stoke's advantage was extended two minutes before half-time, when Walters glanced a long Shotton throw-in to Etherington, who mishit a shot that bobbled past the Spurs' goalkeeper, Brad Friedel.

After the interval Redknapp replaced Benoît Assou-Ekotto with Sébastien Bassong and Aaron Lennon with Jermain Defoe but Stoke retreated and found the means and the luck to contain a Tottenham lineup full of endeavour yet short of menace until they were in deep trouble.

In essence Tottenham have it in them to go on adding to the variety in the upper regions of the table. The imperfections, all the same, are not to be denied. The King issue is never off the agenda. This was one of the games in which his knee condition sidelined him, but great as his abilities are, his club pays a steep price for them.

While he is a Tottenham player, there is an implication that the defence will be disrupted to accommodate him when he is in shape. That can hardly be a happy thought for other centre-backs, such as the pairing here of Kaboul and William Gallas. Whatever the cause, Tottenham were unable to hold out against Stoke.

Boot on the other foot

Last season Pulis was the manager complaining about Foy when Spurs won the equivalent fixture 2-1. Crouch, then a Spurs player, was at the centre of controversy after apparently blocking a Jon Walters header behind the goal-line in stoppage time. The 'goal' was not given and Pulis said: "Looking at the replay, the biggest disappointment is that Chris is looking at the linesman to see what he thinks when he's only two yards away from it himself. The big clubs seem to get the decisions."